On a $50 scratch-off the smallest prize is usually $75. On a $5 ticket it is usually $5 (free ticket)
Overall odds count all prizes in a game, including the one that hands back what the ticket cost. Where that bottom prize sits changes the meaning of the odds, and it changes with price. Figures cover active US scratch-off games in our database as of the second week of October 2026.
| Ticket price | Games | Median smallest prize | Games with a prize at or below the price |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1 | 270 | $1 | 83% |
| $2 | 431 | $2 | 86% |
| $3 | 213 | $3 | 88% |
| $5 | 741 | $5 | 83% |
| $10 | 586 | $10 | 77% |
| $20 | 353 | $20 | 75% |
| $30 | 148 | $30 | 67% |
| $50 | 79 | $75 | 32% |
| $100 | 5 | $150 | 40% |
From $1 to $30 the median smallest prize is the ticket price exactly. At $50 the floor lifts above it, and fewer than a third of those games carry a break-even prize at all.
A game whose bottom prize equals the ticket price uses those tickets to build its hit rate. Roughly four in ten scratch-off prizes nationally return the price, so a published figure like 1 in 4 often means something closer to 1 in 7 for a win that leaves a player ahead.
On most $50 games that gap does not exist. Every winning ticket pays more than the ticket cost, so the published odds and the useful odds are the same number. The trade is that those odds are less frequent in the first place, and a winning ticket comes further apart, which is the arithmetic in what a winning ticket costs by price.
Prize levels do not multiply with price. The median game carries 10 prize levels, and that holds from $1 to $50. The $25 tier is the deepest at 13 levels and the $100 tier the shallowest at 8.
So a premium ticket is not a longer menu. It is the same length of menu with the bottom item removed and the rest scaled up. Reading one before buying is covered in how to read a prize table, and the current rankings weigh what is left in each one.
How we did this. Prize tables are from each state lottery's published game data, covering active US games with at least one prize tier recorded. The smallest prize is the lowest tier value in a game's table. The break-even share counts games whose lowest tier is at or below the ticket price. Prize-level counts are the number of distinct tiers a lottery lists for a game, so a state that groups tiers differently will affect its own games. Figures cover active US scratch-off games in our database as of the second week of October 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the smallest prize on a scratch-off?
It depends on the price. For $1 through $20 games the median smallest prize is the ticket price itself, so the most common outcome of a winning ticket is getting your money back. On a $50 game the median smallest prize is $75, and on a $100 game it is $150.
Do all scratch-offs have a break-even prize?
No. About 83% of $1 games and 86% of $2 games have a prize at or below the ticket price. That falls to 75% at $20, 67% at $30, and just 32% at $50. Premium tickets usually start their prize table above the price.
How many prize levels does a scratch-off have?
About 10 at the median, and the number barely changes with price. A $1 game typically has 9 levels and a $50 game typically has 9 as well. The $25 tier is deepest at 13. What changes is where the bottom of the table sits.
Paul is the Founder of Scratchcheck, he previously co-founded allkpop.com and grew it to millions of readers.
